


Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

by robyn_bird



Series: how a girl becomes a wolf [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Honorable mention: Mr. Gold’s first name, NOT bashing, Pre-Relationship, Season 1, but not present - Freeform, but they don't know what that is so it's a weird limbo, during 1x12, kind of friends, look this is a Belle Free Zone, more terrible almost flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-28 23:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16252436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robyn_bird/pseuds/robyn_bird
Summary: “Valentine’s Day really fucks with us all in different ways.”





	Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

**Author's Note:**

> Listen. I don't like Belle. Or rather, I don't like the way the writers handled her and Rumple's relationship and so I've decided to ignore it. Completely write her out. I may mention her later on and kinda (but it is a STRETCH) alluded to her in this, but she's not a main character and certainly not a True Love.

Well, no, of course not. If asked Gold would happily admit that this was not at all what he had planned. 

He is halfway to his goal, but that wasn’t nearly good enough. Not after all this time. The hurtle, he had _assumed,_ would be getting to the other world. Not _leaving the damn town._ Thankfully, obsessively committing Emma’s name to memory had come in handy, as had the subtle spell weaving that had kept him busy in that dungeon (David and Snow White had been the easiest jailers he’d ever had to deal with they’d be disappointed to know). 

So he’d taken some liberties. It wasn’t quite what he was used to, but the technicalities were the same. People were people no matter what kind of world you lived in, and people were easy to manipulate when you found what drove them. Emma was proving a challenge however, he’d never had to deal with someone who was the product of True Love, and if this was any indication of what others were like then he hopes he never has to again. They were terribly unpredictable. 

“Hey.” 

Such as materializing behind you with their terrible car and equally atrocious leather jacket. 

“I’ve been looking for you, did you know Moe French just turned himself in to me for stealing some of your things?” She sounds amused, and he huffs in quiet pleasure. The man had no backbone at all.

“I wasn’t even aware anything was missing.”

“Skip inventory last night?” Emma hops up on the hood of his car, sitting next to where he is leaning. He’s been coming out here more often, she’s noticing, to the town line. Emma had to make a note of it now that she was sheriff, she didn’t see any real beauty or significance in the area otherwise. But then again, she didn’t pretend to understand Gold. “I’m surprised, you seem like the kind of person who takes inventory at least twice a day.”

“Usually, but it was an off day.” He agrees, and Emma laughs, surprised by the lightheartedness and not eager to break it. 

“Valentine’s Day really fucks with us all in different ways.” 

They lapse into a comfortable silence, and Emma closes her eyes to really drink it in. A few weeks ago she wouldn’t have even dreamed of having a moment like this. She’s worried she’s starting to rely on it though, the peaceful moments to recharge and recenter herself before journeying back into the lion’s den. 

The town was starting to wear on her. Regina popping up around every corner, MaryMargaret slowly starting to lose her mind, this motherfucker David Nolan coming out of no where. Maybe she could punch him hard enough to put him back in a coma. Anyone who instigated a relationship with the personification of sunshine while still married to someone else deserved it, Emma thinks. 

But this was small town life wasn’t it? She has no frame of reference except for rom-coms and terrible Hallmark movies. God, if this was small town life she was rethinking her plan of kidnapping Henry and being done with it. 

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Gold says suddenly and Emma chokes a little, coughing into her hand as surreptitiously as possible. Okay, he can definitely read minds. 

She accuses him of this snappily, looking perfectly confident in her reasoning, you really can’t help but be endeared to her. 

“Your lips pucker when you think about Henry and Regina, and you’ve expressed enough times that you think kidnapping is a viable option. I would like to remind you I _am_ a lawyer, Miss Swan.” 

“Why are you staring at my lips?” Emma mutters petulantly, and Gold rolls his eyes but doesn’t take the bait. While he greatly enjoyed making her uncomfortable by being mildly inappropriate, there was a time and place. “And I’m not actually going to kidnap him! At least not, like, across state lines or anything.”

“Again-“

“‘I’m a lawyer.’ I know, I know.” She waves him off and huffs, tossing her hands up in frustration. “So do some lawyer things and get her to calm the hell down!” 

“I believe that is more of a doctor thing,” he smirks and Emma laughs, leans back on her hands and smiles at the trees. 

She was a startlingly lovely girl. Gold watches her as she drinks in the moment and relaxes more than he can remember anyone being in his presence before. It helps that she doesn’t know, he thinks, even with his reputation in town as Nicholas Gold he was perceived as less than desirable company. A reputation he was happy to uphold until Emma Swan had rolled into town and somehow broken down all his preconceived notions by sheer force of will. 

He could hate her for it, had he the security of being the Dark One here. 

But there is a quiet poeticism, he muses, of seducing the Savior. 

Her relaxed state is enough for him to know that it isn’t completely unreasonable. She’s warming up to him, sees him as an ally in hostile territory, which he could laugh about in any other situation. But in this time and place he couldn’t afford to hold her at arms length, he couldn’t sabotage this relationship like he did so many others. It came natural to him, to assume the worst and work only with his best interests in mind. The only person you could rely on was yourself and even then it was touch and go. 

So you can imagine the kind of turmoil he was facing at having Emma continually seek out his presence. She was the antithesis to everything he was, whether she knew it or not. 

But the _potential._

Gold sighs, and Emma looks at him curiously out of the corner of her eye. 

“You gonna be okay out here?” 

“I was out here by myself for sometime before you came by.” He raises an eyebrow. Since he brought her home half drunk and grieving she’d been rather proactive in her protective instincts. He wishes she focused them more on Henry than him, but supposes she thinks she owes him. Amusing, and ironic. 

“Yeah,” she shrugs, and stands up, “but now that I know you’re out here.” 

“You knowing I’m out here does not suddenly make me an invalid. But,” he says when he sees the fight in her eyes that could delay them here for the better part of the afternoon, “I am heading back to the shop anyway. You may return to work with a clear conscience you did not leave an old man alone in the woods.” 

If he expects her to bite back that she didn’t think he was incapable or that it would hardly weigh on her conscience, he is disappointed. Emma opens her mouth, but then closes it, her jaw tensed and eyes narrowed slightly. She’s fighting with herself, and Gold watches as she comes to a decision. 

It might not seem like much to the outside person, but to the two of them, who have never had a healthy relationship or even an idea of one, it changes things. These two people, while at their core are opposites, there are still parts of them that suit each other immensely.

Emma sets her hand on Gold’s arm, and kisses the corner of his mouth. Blushing beautifully and smiling just so. It takes barely a second but it’s enough.

“Drive safe,” she says, and leaves before he can ask her about the abrupt invasion of space and disregard for boundaries that he so obviously has. Emma wouldn’t have an answer anyway. 

Valentine’s Day really did fuck with everyone in different ways. 

* * *

_What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck._

Emma white knuckles it the entire way back to the station. 


End file.
